When reports surfaced explaining the reason that Andrew Bynum was kicked out of a Cavaliers practice before ultimately being suspended and traded from the team, we obviously assumed the worst.

As it turns out, our assumption that Bynum was being so blatantly disrespectful that he would dare to launch shots well out of his normal range weren’t that far off — and it’s something he admitted to in a recent interview discussing the Cleveland situation.

He did not work well under coach Mike Brown’s detail-oriented structure. “It’s kinda like, if I send you to the grocery store and I give you three choices for peanut butter, you’ll probably pick one easily. But if I give you 25 choices, you might stand there for half an hour. Having it be too detailed may not always be the right thing,” Bynum says.

Also, Bynum raged against the shoot-first guards. During a practice, Bynum said that he launched a shot from midcourt, clearly out of the rhythm of the offensive play. Another day during a scrimmage, he did not like a call from assistant coach Phil Handy and mocked him as “a horrible referee.”

“Those are the two things I did,” Bynum says. “I did them on purpose because it was over there for me.”

Bynum said all the right things in regards to his new situation with the Pacers, the team with the best record in the East and the one with the best chance of upsetting the defending champion Heat in a postseason series.

It’s possible Bynum may have been spoiled a bit by his time with the Lakers, and isn’t equipped (or even willing) to deal with being on a team that isn’t in a prohibitive winning situation. But the chance in Indiana will certainly be his last if it goes awry, and we’re all still waiting to see exactly what he can contribute at this stage of his career on a consistent basis.

Honestly, how does any basketball fan root for this guy? It just makes no sense to me. Does this sound like the same guy that convinced Larry over dinner that he was worth signing? It doesn’t to me, and to have him now playing on a team contending for a championship just plain stinks.

His childish tantrums in practice and foolish antics while supposedly trying to recover from injury are one thing, but its the blatantly intentional elbows while he was on the Lakers that does it for me.
Off hand I remember Gerald Wallace being a victim (who had broken ribs and a collapsed lung from it), JJ Barea (at the very end of a playoff sweep, the ultimate cheap shot) and I think Derrick Williams. Just a horrible, shameless basketball personality with no sportsmanship or class imo.

I’m sorry…but I just laugh when I imagine AB launching that half court shot…and Coach Brown boiling inside thinking , “damn, am I gonna have to kill this dude?” yeah, LA may have spoiled him…his career will continue to go down hill which is crazy since he is what? 25?!

After reading the comments I had to re-read the origional story. Surely I must have missed the part that the half court shot he took in practice killed a kid holding a puppy and due to being called “a horrible ref” it made the assistant coach feel so bad that he had to quit his job and all he does all day is watch films dealing with animal husbandry. Way to go Andrew Bynum.

‘But the chance in Indiana will certainly be his last if it goes awry…’ Dude this is wistful thinking on your part. As long as Bynum can rebound, block shots and score points he will remain in the league. A guy with his size and skill set is rarer then hen’s teeth. The Heat picked up Greg Oden who never did anything significant in the pros on the hopes that he MIGHT contribute something, anything… Bynum doesn’t love the game, but he loves the NBA life-style. Just by being a 7 footer who’s won championships will be enough to entice the next GM to give him a chance if Indiana lets him go.